Suspect In Arkansas Jail Likely Is Florida Escapee

March 27, 1986|By Susan Lamb, Special to The Sentinel

LIVE OAK — Federal authorities in Arkansas believe a man they arrested Monday after forcing his marijuana-laden plane to land is a Madison County jail escapee who has been sought worldwide since he fled last May.

Authorities in Arkansas said Wednesday they are still trying to identify the man, but the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said it has been told the man being held in Benton, Ark., is Joseph Francis Valverde III, 36.

The man identified himself as Kenneth Jordan after he was forced to land his twin-engine plane at the Little Rock airport about 4 p.m. Monday.

He was arrested by Customs agents. Customs planes had followed the man's plane, bound from Jamaica, since it entered U.S. airspace over the Gulf of Mexico.

Agents found 3,300 pounds of marijuana on the plane.

FBI fingerprint experts on Wednesday matched the man's prints with Valverde's and determined that he was a fugitive from Florida, said Gary Warden of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Little Rock.

The man first refused to give any name and later gave several names before settling on Jordan.

Valverde and Thomas Geers, 36, escaped from the Madison jail May 23, 1986, through an unlocked cell door. They were being held on charges of importing $1.9 million in marijuana into the county on Dec. 28, 1984.

Valverde, a convicted concaine peddler, also figured in the FBI's ABSCAM case that led to the conviction of former U.S Rep. Richard Kelly. Kelly was charged with accepting a $25,000 bribe from undercover agents to provide government favors.

Since Valverde's escape, his attorney, Cary Hardee II of Madison, has been indicted in connection with the escape and on charges that he brought large sums of money into the jail for his client. Former chief jailer Mike Scanlon also was indicted, along with a jail trusty.

Florida officials said late Wednesday they are preparing to ask for the man's extradition to Florida for trial on the escape charges once final identification has been made.

The man is in the Saline County jail without bond, Warden said.

A preliminary hearing on charges there and for bond is set for Friday.